Tactile labels

Tactile labels (also known as tactile markers) help people with a visual impairment find things through touch. They come in the form of stickers with a raised shape or Braille writing, liquid plastic, or even household items.

They can help you identify items and find the correct settings on objects and appliances around your home. You might use them to distinguish similar-feeling items in your cupboard, like tins, or to find your preferred setting on your toaster, for example.

Alba, who has sight loss, uses an orange bump-on to identify a programme on her washing machine.

5 types of tactile labels to help people with sight loss

We talk about a range of tactile labels on this page, including:

Tactile stickers, such as Braille labels
Tactile dots or touch dots, such as Bump-ons, Bump-Dots, BumperStops, and Loc-Dots
Tacti-Mark
Sock Snaps
Household objects

Tactile stickers

The most common type of tactile sticker is a Braille label. This is a sticker with raised Braille writing that you can attach to an object to describe what it is. For example, you might add a Braille label saying “Front” to your front door key to distinguish it from your back door key.

Braille labels are quick and easy to make at home. All you need is a Braille Dymo Tape Labeller and plenty of labelling tape. Using the Dymo machine, punch in the name of the object you’d like to label, press the cut button, peel off the back of the tape and stick the label on the object.

A Braille label is useful to help identify medication, letters or numbers on a keyboard, different settings on equipment like a microwave, or even different makeup products.

Things to keep in mind when using Braille labels

Although Braille stickers are incredibly useful, they tend to be bigger than other tactile labels. With this in mind, take care that the sticker isn’t covering any other instructions or information, especially if the object you’re labelling is communal.

Because of their size, Braille labels might not be the best tactile marker for labelling small objects. However, if you’re confident you’ll know what the object is in context, you could abbreviate the name to save space. For example, you could label the saltshaker “Sa” and the pepper grinder “P”.

Tactile dots and touch dots

Tactile dots and touch dots are adhesive raised stickers that you can attach to equipment with a hard surface. They’re useful when you want to indicate a particular point on the equipment, such as the setting you use most often on your dishwasher, oven, toaster, or washing machine. Tactile dots and touch dots include:

Bump-ons or Bump-Dots: They’re available in a range of colours, most commonly orange, black, and transparent.
BumperStops: They come in a variety of thicknesses and pressure sensitivities, such as Standard BumperStops and SuperSoft BumperStops. There’s also a customisable option, which allows you to choose the shape of the BumperStop, but this option is only available if you’re ordering a large amount.
Loc-Dots: Being only 2mm high, Loc-Dots tend to be smaller and flatter than Bump-ons or BumperStops.

Which product you choose might depend on the object you’re labelling. For example, if you’re labelling a small object, you might prefer Loc-Dots because they’re flatter. Or if you have low vision, you might pick the orange BumperStops if you’re labelling a black object.

Things to keep in mind when using tactile dots or touch dots

Be careful not to overload an appliance with tactile dots because this could lead to confusion. For example, if you need to use a number pad to enter a code, you could always mark the central number – which is usually 5 – with a tactile dot and learn the code in relation to the marker.

On some household objects, common-use buttons can be subtly marked already, like on a remote control. So, it’s always best to check the equipment before you apply a tactile dot.

Tacti-Mark

Tacti-Mark is a liquid plastic that comes in a bottle with a narrow nozzle. You can apply it to paper, metal, and hard plastics. Try drawing different shapes to help distinguish between different objects. For example, you could draw a sun on your sunglasses case to differentiate it from your regular glasses case.

Things to keep in mind when using Tacti-Mark

Be aware that once it has hardened (which takes 24 hours), it’s tricky to remove. It’s not advisable to use Tacti-Mark on products that heat up and it doesn’t adhere to other flexible plastics.

Sock Snaps

Sock Snaps or Loc-A-Socks are small disks with a hole in the centre, designed to help keep pairs of socks together when you put them in the wash. Although they aren’t labels as such, they’re a tactile aid to help users with the everyday task of pairing up socks.

To use them, push the pair of socks through the circular hole and pop them in the washing machine, then when they come out, you can easily pair them up.

Things to keep in mind when using Sock Snaps

Most Sock Snaps are made from rubber, so avoid putting them in the wash with delicate fabrics, such as knitwear.

In the fridge I put different things on different shelves – top shelf for dairy, for example. I put ready meals in date order with the longest date going at the back.

Margaret, guide dog owner

Everyday household items

A simple and cost-effective way to tell the difference between similar objects is to attach an everyday household item to them. Items such as elastic bands, hair bobbles, clothing pegs, and buttons, are great for this purpose.

Try putting an elastic band around your shampoo so you can distinguish it from your conditioner.
Pop a clothing peg on the packet of rice you’ve already opened.
Try using different hair bobbles with different thicknesses to differentiate tins in your cupboard.
You could even alter the packaging to help you find something quicker. For example, you could tear the corner of your favourite cereal box.
You could sew buttons onto the labels of clothing to help differentiate between items.

Alba talks about how she uses low-tech solutions at home, like sewing buttons on her children's school shirt labels to differentiate them, using bump ons and talking scales.

Audio labels

Unlike other tactile markers, audio labels have an audio feature and therefore help you identify items using hearing rather than touch. They usually work with you recording your voice to label an item.

Talking tins are circular, plastic voice recording machines with the same circumference as a food tin and are designed to sit on top of them. Put simply, they work as an audio food label.

To use them, record yourself saying what’s in the tin you’re labelling, then place them on top of that tin. Although they’re designed for food tins, they come with a Velcro strap for wrapping around other items. Talking Tins are magnetic, so you can also attach them to surfaces such as the front of the fridge and use them to record short messages, such as phone numbers, shopping lists or messages for other members of the household. They’re available in yellow with a 20-second recording limit and red with a recording limit of 40 seconds.
The PenFriend is an audio labelling device that you can use to record your own voice onto sticky labels. You can attach these to a wide range of items – such as food or clothing (make sure you have the laundry safe labels for clothing). It helps you identify the item by playing back your recording when you scan the label with the PenFriend.
Alternatively, you can use your smartphone or tablet to help you identify items. Apps that have text-to-speech and image recognition abilities are useful in this context, or you could contact a sighted volunteer through an app.

Seeing AI is a free app that can scan the barcode of a product and tell you what it is.

Be My Eyes connects users to volunteers who you can ask to identify objects, or use the Be My AI function to recognise objects.
NFC (Near Field Communication) tags are small, programmable tags that can be attached to items around the home. These tags, which you can buy from online retailers, can come in the form of stickers, cards or tokens, some of which are self-adhesive – anything which can house an NFC chip. By scanning the NFC tag with an app (there are many free scanning apps available on Apple and Android), users can hear pre-recorded or custom text read aloud, helping to label any items you might want to identify.

Apple AirTags, on the other hand, are designed for tracking items rather than simply identifying them. These tags are coin-sized and can be attached to a keyring or placed inside a bag or wallet. Unlike NFC tags, which need to be nearby to scan, AirTags use Bluetooth and Apple's Find My network to locate items like keys or bags anywhere in the home or beyond. For someone with sight loss, AirTags can be especially helpful as the precise location can be guided by audio cues or haptic feedback, making it easier to find misplaced objects.

Things to keep in mind when using audio labels

If you’re using an audio labelling device, like Talking Tins or PenFriend, you might need sighted assistance or a text recognition app to tell you what’s in each tin or what each item is before you label them.

For apps, you’ll likely need an active internet connection – either through WiFi or mobile data. Some apps require the latest operating systems to run at their best.

Don’t let anything creep into the cupboard without you putting a label on it. PenFriend is my favourite way but you may need sighted help to label everything after a big shop.

Andrea, guide dog owner

Get in touch with Guide Dogs for support

If you need support with identifying items in your home, or other accessibility options, please contact us.

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Edited and reviewed by Beata Lisowska, Vision Rehabilitation Specialist on 17/09/2024

Guide Dogs is committed to promoting independent living skills and accessibility for people with sight loss. Our Technology Champions, comprising Vision Rehabilitation Specialists and Habilitation Specialists, are trained experts in mobility, accessibility and vision rehabilitation, working to help people live independently and on their own terms. We review this content periodically to ensure that it is up to date and to ensure accessibility is at the centre of the design. To find out more, there is more information in our accessibility policy.